Battle over evidence in courtroom

MADISON COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - Jason Singleton's defense attorney says State Police went into his home illegally after they found his wife dead. He says they had no legitimate reason to go inside.

A state trooper said when he got to Jason Singleton's house to make sure no one came and went, he noticed something odd.

"When I arrived, I noticed the garage door was open. After sitting there, I noticed that I could smell, like, a charred smoke. It almost smelled as if something was on fire or had been on fire," said Trooper Edwin Botkin of the Kentucky State Police.

Botkin said he called for backup and when they got there, they were ordered to do a sweep of the house to make sure there were no more victims or suspects inside and evidence wasn't being destroyed.

"We were basically going in to make sure nobody was in there, nobody else was injured," said Botkin.

A search warrant hadn't yet been issued. Defense attorneys say the sweep of the house was illegal and the search warrant that came later shouldn't have been issued. They want any evidence that was found in that search to be thrown out.

"There was a door. Just inside that door, there was a knife on the ground to the left hand side," said Botkin.

"Did they find all these concerns they had? Was there anyone in there destroying evidence? No. Was there any fire inside there? No," said defense attorney Jim Baechtold.

"The search was a reasonable search in an effort to discover another victim, living or dead. The defendant's fourth amendment rights in this case were not violated," ruled Judge William Clouse.

Jason Singleton's defense attorney says there are other pieces of evidence he plans to dispute.

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